Day 2 Tues 24th.

The plan was to get straight down to the beach after breakfast for another high tide seawatch. Again one or two distant auks  went north, also a gannet. Little terns fished in the wash. Sanderlings flew up and down.

On the reserve the best birds today were a couple of spoonbills. A black tailed godwit fed close to them. During the day we checked all areas. The new visitor centre was now open and we went up on the roof, which provides a great panoramic view. Scanning produced a female marsh harrier, 4 pink-footed geese and some distant grey plovers. Later we clocked another marsh harrier and another pink-foot from one of the hides. A great-spotted woodpecker called from the plantation. In the dunes a few butterflies had emerged to enjoy a cold but sunny spell.

Green hairstreak and wall brown.

I went back to Aunty Ruth’s guest house for a freshen up, Ben stayed and added a drake garganey and a turtle dove while I was gone. We got down to the beach again for about 7pm for yet another look at the sea. It was a pleasant surprise to get one or two birds this time, even enough to get a bit of a list in the old notebook;

gannet 4 N, 1 S

skua sp. 3 distantly.

guillemot 2 N

auk sp. 3 N

fulmar 3 N

common tern 4

little tern 50+

lots of sanderling up and down the shoreline.

It was getting dark by the time we got back, only to find Aunty Ruth mowing the front lawn with a 1930’s yellow push mower !! It was well dark by the time she’d done. Wonderwoman!

————————————————————————————-